BU Today Sessions: BU Hip Hop
BU HH Vol. 2: The Rhetturn available for download April 24
BU Hip-Hop is probably best known for its freestyle cyphers held each Wednesday at 5 p.m. in front of the George Sherman Union, but club cofounder Blair Lineham wants to make one thing clear: BU Hip-Hop is not a rap group.
“Rapping is one of the things we like to do,” says Lineham (SMG’14). “We’re embracing the entire culture of hip-hop. This semester, we’re focused on educating ourselves and the community about the fundamentals: street art, DJing, B-boying, and MCing.”
Cofounded by Lineham and Guillermo Antonini (SHA’13) three years ago, BU Hip-Hop grew from a Facebook group to a one-off cypher to a student organization with a mission statement.
“The core goal of BU Hip-Hop,” Lineham says, “is bringing people together over a shared passion for hip-hop—creating an environment in which people can meet each other and have the potential to become friends or go to shows. Especially for freshmen, finding a place where you know you can just plug and meet people with the same interest as you is really cool.”
With membership growing from 15 two years ago to the current 60, BU Hip-Hop found itself with the talent and initiative to enter the arena of mixtapes earlier this year. Recording tracks mostly in a Warren Towers dorm room, the group released BUHH Vol. 1: The Ill Rhettoric in January. The group’s second mixtape, BUHH Vol. 2: The Rhetturn, featuring original works by 30 rappers and 8 producers, will be available for download on Thursday, April 24.
Lineham is proud of the way the mixtape brought the organization closer together. “It’s really changed our dynamic,” he says. “It’s allowed people to interact in a setting that’s not necessarily freestyling or sitting at an event. It’s really collaborating on a song and getting to know somebody and how their mind works.”
With Lineham graduating in May, another generation of leadership will soon take the reins of the young organization. Nonetheless, he is confident that he will see an even stronger, larger group when he drops by BU Hip-Hop’s events as an alum. “This is something that we seniors want to see grow after we graduate,” he says. “All great things take patience.”
Be sure stop by the Ellipse at the Center for Student Services, 100 Bay State Rd., this Thursday, April 24, from 6 to 8 p.m. for the “BU Today Sessions” release party, cosponsored by the Dean of Students. The event will feature several of the groups that have performed as part of the 2014 “BU Today Sessions” series. Check out BU Today on Thursday as well, when we present our final spring 2014 installment of “BU Today Sessions.”
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